‘There are no more efficiency savings to be had’, says Women’s Budget Group
The WBG criticises proposed spending cuts, warning of their impact on already stretched public services.
UK Budget Assessment
Women’s Budget Group response to Autumn Budget 2017
This was a Budget marked by gloomy economic forecasts from the OBR. GDP is now projected to be 2% lower than previously predicted by 2022 and productivity levels continue to grow at a sluggish 0.2% per year.
The Chancellor’s promised to meet the challenges facing the UK but this was a Budget which did nothing ambitious or significant to address many of the urgent challenges facing the UK, including the crisis in social care, falling real wages, a social security system that is leaving 4 million children in poverty and widespread violence against women and girls.
There was some welcome investment on physical infrastructure including:
However, investment in social infrastructure has been mostly overlooked, with negative consequences for women and the economy as a whole.
Despite some changes to the waiting time for Universal Credit no serious attempt was made to reverse the benefit cuts and tax changes that have had a disproportionate negative impact on women and BME households (see our pre-Budget press release here). The Government has failed to provide evidence that it has met its obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty to have due regard to the impact of its policies on equality by publishing a comprehensive equality impact assessment of the measures included in this Budget. We welcome the call of a cross party group of 127 MPs for the Government to publish such an impact assessment.
If you have any questions about this analysis or would like further information please contact our Director, Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson maryann.stephenson@wbg.org.uk
The WBG criticises proposed spending cuts, warning of their impact on already stretched public services.
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